Of Jewels and Crows
by Izno
Summary: Crows are always fond of shiny objects. And for the black tengu, she was just irresistible, for she shined like a fine jewel embedded in the night sky. Haruka x Kagome  rating may go up
1. In the Stomach

Disclaimer: I do not own Tactics or Inuyasha.

**Inside the Stomach**

The green youkai wasn't sure what this _thing_ was. Lying there, in the soft grass, was a pink spherical ball that she had never come across before. Cautiously taking a step forward, she observed the ball lying there innocently, reflecting the sunlight, and giving off a pink glare. Another step forward, and she felt it. The immense power radiating off from what seemed to be a simple pink stone was overwhelming, which caused her to stop in place.

"Muu?"

She wondered if it was something she could eat. She had eaten many things before, spirits, demons, aradama, bugs…but this little stone here somehow seemed very _delicious_. A drop of clear saliva dripped down her chin and landed on the grass field with a little plop, and Muu instantly took another step forward. The hunger was becoming immense, and the craving for that tiny stone grew with each halting step.

"Muu-chan! Don't leave me! Where are you?"

From far her husband called, but she didn't, _couldn't_ care. Her beady black eyes fixed its gaze on the stone, and with a deep breath, she sucked the stone right into her stomach.

* * *

"So she has been sick since then?"

"Yes… Muu-chan! What should I do! I can't live without you!"

Sugino the white tengu was at the verge of his tears. He knew his wife had the habit of eating anything interesting that she came across, but she hadn't become sick for a long, _long_ time. Only if he took a good care of her and her eating habits… The tears sprung again and this time, it barely lingered at the rim of his eyes. When Muu suddenly collapsed right in front of him, the only help he could think of was the silver haired human that he _hated_ so much. Ichinomiya Kantarou. Though the folklorist exactly wasn't the best in his mind, the logical side of him persuaded him to take his wife to the man, which the tengue did. The folklorist didn't quite welcome him when Sugino suddenly barged into the room in middle of his meeting with a rich guest, but seeing that Muu was in bad condition, he quickly dismissed the customer and tried his best to figure out the reason to her sickness.

"She ate a _stone_ and got sick?"

"I think so…"

"Why would a _stone_ make her sick? I mean, she eats…most uncommon things in the world, Sugino san."

"Muu is a fragile youkai! She is not like _you_, Kantarou!"

Took back by the enraged white tengu's comment, Ichinomiya shifted uneasily under the black haired man's accusing glare, until he heard it: the light jingle of his bells. It rang louder and louder until it started to vibrate and shake violently that the folklorist had no choice but to hold down the bells with his other hand. And despite the mad jingles of the bells, his chest was perfectly fine without any trace of pain. At that moment, Kantarou somehow felt relieved that the other tengu wasn't in the room, since he hated noise. Eventually the bells died down, and Kantarou let go of the hand that had been gripping onto the bells.

"Strange…"

"What is?"

"Oh, Haruka."

Kantarou looked up at the black haired man with quite an effort. The heavy weight clinging onto his neck made it much harder, and Kantarou was definitely _irritated_ by the amused look twinkling in Haruka's eyes. Sugino clinging onto Kantarou's neck begging to save his wife was not an everyday occasion, nor would this happen in the future, and Haruka was simply amazed what that green demon could do to that egoistic but devoted white tengu. Haruka certainly would have observed this entertaining scene if his master didn't _ask_ him sweetly to pull Sugino away from him. Agitated but not able to disobey, he ripped Sugino away from the young man's neck and pushed Sugino back into his seat. The black winged tengu sighed, silently hoping that the folklorist will _fix_ Muu soon.

_Soon_.

* * *

Muu could hear all the fuss that had been going on in the room. She could feel, hear, and sense everything from the moment she collapsed up to now. The demon felt guilty when she felt drops of her husband's tear as he held her tightly in his embrace and flew over to Kantarou's house, and certainly still felt guilty for making the tengu worry. Despite the fact that all of her senses were intact, she could not even twitch a little nor make a small noise. It felt quite weird actually, knowing everything yet feeling as if nonexistent.

"Muu!"

She tried speaking, to assure herself that she still existed, but the echo of her own voice rang inside her mind, swallowed by the silence of her mouth. It was then she heard something shift inside her stomach. It first sounded like a mere wind until the sound got more frenzy and sounds of thunderstorm erupted within her. Muu panicked, not knowing why there was such thunderstorm inside her, and she did not remember anything related to thunderstorms. Between the rumblings of thunder and tatterings of the rain, Muu heard the frantic sounds of Kantarou's bells, and the young man's grunts to calm the bells down. Just as the bells started to calm down, Muu thought she heard a young girl's voice from far beneath of her stomach.

"Where am I?"

Muu never remembered eating a _girl_.


	2. Uncertainties and Questions

**Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Tactics.**

**Uncertainties and Questions**

* * *

All she remembered was the warm ray of sunlight hitting on the surface of the very jewel that she was locked up in. The next moment she was brought to consciousness, she was inside what it seemed to be a "universe." There were different galaxies near by, as well as the planets that rotated around the gigantic sun. Though Kagome had been to many places before, she never visited a place like this.

She traveled to many places in the jewel, but usually stayed in a small shrine in the countryside. The priest from her old companions had sealed the jewel there, hoping that no greedy human or demon will try to taint it again like a certain half demon did until the priestess from the future will claim this object. One thing the priest didn't realize was that she, the supposed guardian of the jewel, was sealed inside the jewel, unable to return back to her original era. Yet she did not feel depressed; she _knew_ how the world on the other side of the well worked, and she definitely did not want to get tangled into that dirty mess. She did not have any hobby to dirty herself voluntarily by jumping into a mud pool. It was her decision that caused her to get sucked into the jewel as a replacement for Midoriko's soul. The jewel needed a "good;" a good that will continue fight the "evil" within the jewel like the creator of it did before her. And so Kagome decided to take Midoriko's place.

Many years past by, and though she spent hundreds of years in that little jewel, she was never bored. Or rather, she didn't have time to be bored. The demons came after her continuously, and every once a while she had to purify them to mere dust so that she could at least enjoy some peace before the dust formed back into a demon. She was so occupied with keeping the jewel pure that when she felt as though she was getting sucked into a black hole, she could not care nor do anything about it. So when she woke up, she could not stop herself from asking the question that popped into her mind.

"Where am I?"

* * *

"Where am I?"

Muu was quite shocked to hear a girl—nevertheless, what it seemed to be a _human _girl—inside her stomach. She counted numerous times, checking and going through the lists of things she ate that they, but despite her effort, she still couldn't remember eating a girl. Or Muu actually wondered if she ate the girl by mistake. That was possible, if the girl could not withstand the power of Muu's sucking breath and was sucked right into the demon's stomach along with the food. For a moment Muu pondered about what she could do. She could feed herself so that when the food is dropped into her stomach, the girl could somehow eat that food to continue surviving, but that meant no bugs or warms for food. No aradama. No demons. No spirits. Scratch. The second option probably was to tell Kantarou or her husband about this matter, but once again, no body could hear her. Scratch. The last option that was left was to _throw the girl up_. Though that might be a bothersome task, Muu decided that was the only best option she had. Muu smiled at her intelligence.

"Muu."

Bravo.

* * *

Kantarou stared down at the green demon. Muu was unconscious since yesterday, and though he searched every single book he could obtain, there was no cure for such strange occurrence. Without any background information or knowledge, Kantarou had to _fix_—to borrow Haruka's expression—this demon's sickness and return Sugino who was by now wailing and crying every second. All the folklorist knew was that before Muu collapsed, she ate a _stone_. He could not stifle a short chuckle at that information: such an irony that a simple stone could make the aradama-eating demon fall ill. Yet Ichinomiya knew that the stone probably wasn't as _simple_ as any stone that could be found anywhere. What could _powerful_ enough to overwhelm and disrupt Muu's youki? He felt the headache coming again. Just then his bells started to jingle again, even fiercer than it did yesterday. He tried to calm or at least mute it, but his effort proved to be futile when Haruka, with Sugino dangling on the black tengu's neck, came dashing into the room, worry laced beneath the indifferent mask.

"Is it an oni?"

"Honestly, I don't know."

And honestly, he didn't. Though Haruka shot him a 'tell-me-or-I'll-force-it' glare, Kantarou had no idea why the bells were ringing and he didn't have any chest pains. Certainly it wasn't an oni. Then what was it? Just as the frantically ringing bells shattered into tiny little fragments, a bright light erupted from Muu with surprisingly strong force. Sound of gushing wind covered Sugino's desperate cry of his wife's name, as well as the grunts of pain from the folklorist who was near the demon. Just how the light had erupted suddenly, it died fairly short after the wind calmed down, leaving a disheveled room and a green youkai.

"Muu-chan!"

The tearful wail of Sugino brought Kantarou back from shock and astonishment, and he automatically looked around the room for the sign of black winged demon. Seeing that the black tengu was leaning against the wall, Kantarou sighed, relieved that his friend was not hurt. His red eyes settled on the crying figure of Sugino and the green demon that now seemed to be conscious again, and Kantarou smiled. No matter how annoying Sugino was during the short visit, to see him crying like that over his wife's welfare was quite a touching scene.

"Hey, how did you fix her?"

"Honestly, I don't know."

Kantarou found himself repeating the same phrase again to Haruka's question as he was pulled up with the help of certain demon. There were so many uncertainties and questions that made Kantarou baffled and confused about the whole situation. Though Muu regaining her health back was a thing to celebrate, he couldn't pinpoint what exactly _fixed_ her. Everything was a mystery that he couldn't solve, and that frustrated him. Sighing in frustration, Kantarou straightened his clothes when he noticed an unfamiliar object lying besides Sugino.

"Eh?"

"What is it Kantarou?"

"Haruka…were there any pink stones in my room? Or anything like that?"

"Not that I remember."

Haruka turned his gaze towards the end of Kantarou's gaze and found a little shining stone lying on the tatami mat. It was mesmerizing. The way that it lay on the mat innocently, reflecting off the sunray creating a pink reflection of light was absolutely beautiful. At least to a crow's eyes Before Kantarou could even restrain him, Haruka had reached out and picked up the jewel and observed it closely, admiring the beauty of a pink stone that popped out of nowhere.

"Haruka! That might be the cause of Muu's sickness! Put it down!"

Somewhere distant in the background, Haruka heard his master yelling at him to put the stone down, as well as Sugino's worried cry, but the crow didn't care, nonetheless. It was so shiny and pretty against the sunlight, and the way that it made a pink shadow on his white skin was absolutely stunning that Haruka could not let go of the stone. Instead, he gripped it tightly, not wanting to let go of his precious jewel.

"Haruka, put down the jewel! Now!"

His master had used his name. The black tengu felt the need to put the jewel down, the need to obey, but at the same time, he did not want to let go of this stone. This was his, and no one, _no one_, could take away his.

"It's mine!"

A small growl escaped Haruka's mouth and Kantarou seemed to be dumbfounded by the sudden violent reaction from Haruka. He felt Haruka's youki flare a little when he spat out each word slowly, his hand trembling from the inner fight to whether let go or not. Kantarou narrowed his eyes. The stone seemed to charm the demons, and he wasn't going to let Haruka get sick because of that simple stone. Just then, he felt it. A wash of power that swept across the room. Kantarou's heart thumped. He had never felt such energy before; purity and power, that was all he could use to describe the foreign power that was growing by each second. Before Kantarou could realize, there was a big explosion, and everything went white.

* * *

This round's light took longer time to fade away than the last one that happened with Muu. When the blinding light subsidized and left three stunned people in the room, Haruka was the first to open his eyes. When he was holding on to the stone dearly, he had felt the sudden growth of the power in the stone, and he had let go of it just before the explosion. His eyes were still adjusting to the normal darkness of the room, but he could make out a fuzzy outline of someone sitting at the place he threw the jewel at. He heard a small cough and grunt from where Kantarou and Sugino stood just a moment ago. It seemed that both were all okay. After checking both were all right, Haruka turned his gaze back to the mysterious figure. His eyes were better adjusted to the darkness of the room, and now he could clearly make up the appearance of the figure.

Standing there was a girl of young age wearing a traditional white and red priestess' garb with a bow and arrows. The dark black locks of hair were tied into a lose ponytail with few strands of hair lose and lying besides her white cheeks. What attracted him the most were the shining silver eyes that pierced his dark blue-green orbs. She first seemed to be puzzled at why she was there, but seemed to gain her senses as her attitude became much calmer and colder than she was few minutes ago.

"Who are you?"

Haruka wanted to ask her the same thing.

* * *

A/N

Well, this chapter took longer than i expected!

It is 1:54 AM here in Shanghai,

and I am so freaking tired right now TT I better go to sleep, ne?

**Thanks to: kakashixangela, mystlady, kits-hold-their-tears, WraithReaper, Narutofallenangel123 **

Thank you all for your wonderful reviews, especially **kakashixangela** who has been reviewing my other story as well :)

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	3. Time to Talk?

Disclaimer: Don't own Tactics or Inuyasha

**Time to Talk?**

* * *

Her silver eyes flickered to left then to right. She didn't recognize where she was. The room was untidy with white papers scattered everywhere, furniture fallen to the floor, and books all over the floor. Whoever the room's owner was, that person must be a disorganized person, she noted (she did not realize she was the cause of such disorder). Scanning the room, she noticed there were two other (besides the one in front of her) distinctive youki not far from her, and she instantly tensed. Could it be that one of these demons had taken the jewel here? If that was the case, she needed to kill them. She picked up the pink jewel that lay innocently on the tatami floor and slipped it into a small packet inside her haori's sleeve. Hopefully the jewel will stay there when she fights. Kagome flexed her fingers. It had been long since she had a physical fight.

* * *

Haruka brought up his staff just as the girl's sword came crashing down on him. He and Sugino had been fighting this mysterious woman for more than thirty minutes yet there was no sign of it ending. Though Haruka did not wish to believe, he somehow felt as though the girl was going easy on them, her movements repressed and simple that he could easily block and expect the next attack. He spotted Kantarou few feet away from the fight, looking at him worried. Haruka managed to flash him a short smile before he countered the attack and attempted to hit her with his dull end of the staff. She managed to dodge his stab just in time and attacked his side with her sword. Just when Haruka blocked the sword, her hand, which was glowing with soft, silver light, approached him, and Haruka instinctively dodged away from her. She was dangerous. Whatever power she had, his instinct screamed, was dangerous to him. A small chill ran down his spine as the girl abandoned her sword and got into combat position, both of her hands glowing. His grip on the staff tightened. He wasn't going to let the girl have chance of laying her hands on Kantarou.

As for Kantarou who was standing along the sidelines watching, he was greatly worried about Haruka who seemed to be tired out by the long battle. The girl, he observed, was dangerously beautiful. With her flowing black hair and luminescent silver eyes, she almost seemed like a goddess fallen from the sky. Her looks were deceiving. He had no idea that that fragile looking girl could fight well enough to go against Haruka. His crimson eyes flickered left to right wildly, following the fast movements of Haruka, the mysterious girl, and Sugino who just recovered from an injury to his abdomen and joined the fight. There was a loud explosion and a silver flash before the two demons were thrown in two different directions, their skin badly burnt.

"Haruka! Sugino sama!"

There were small grunts, but no clear answer. Kantarou bit his lips. He had underestimated the girl's power, and now they were paying the price. He held out his beads to chant the usual words when his beads suddenly snapped. His crimson eyes slowly opened and saw that the girl was looking straight at him, her silver eyes curved into shape of crescent moon. Her silver eyes glittered before her eyes hardened again and fixed on the fallen form of the black crow. She raised her glowing hand and dashed towards the black tengu. Sugino saw her heading towards the onikui, but he couldn't move nor shout at him to move. Blood dripped down from the corner of his mouth as his black eyes fixed on the back of the girl who was now bringing her hand down, plunging into Haruka's stomach.

"Onikui!"

His cry rang.

* * *

After she _sparred_ for God knows how long, she finally realized she was not fighting enemies but some random demons that came across the jewel by chance. But she could not stop fighting and apologize to them that she had mistaken them for potential enemies. No, she was too damn prideful to do that. So Kagome had no other choice but to continue fighting and appear as though she was handling them seriously. Out of corner of her eye, she saw that the silver haired boy had taken out his beads to chant the binding words, and she somehow knew by instinct that if she were to be bound, the two demons would not hesitate to kill her.

'Sorry, kid. Can't let that happen.'

She let a small stream of her powers to slide towards the boy and snap the beads in half. As the small beads fell on to the grass, she smiled apologetically to the boy and fixed her gaze at the demon. She really wanted to stop fighting. Her powers were running out drastically due to lack of actual fighting in the real world, and her stamina was down low. Gathering up the last bits of energy she had, she focused it in her hand and dashed towards the fallen demon. She saw his dark orbs crack just a little as she brought her hand down to his stomach, attempting to _pierce_ it clean.

"Onikui!"

She heard the other demon cry out in despair and she let out a small chuckle. She had won. Her hand had pierced he demon's abdomen cleanly, the tips of her fingers visible out in his back. The demon's eyes widened as he gasped, and she stayed like that for few seconds before she sharply retreated her hand back. The demon fell to the floor on his knees, and she smiled at him in triumph. Her skills have not rusted. Her hand was clean with no traces of blood, and his stomach was still intact. In fact, all his injuries were healed without leaving any traces of scars.

"How…"

"Perhaps it's time for us to talk?"

Oh, she just loved that priceless expression on his face.

* * *

**A/N**

Yeah... i know.. it's supposed to be the FBxIY fic that I'm supposed to be updating this time, but i just had to write this chapter! I was so excited about Kagome out of the jewel... Lol

Anyways,

**Thanks to: kakashixangela**, **WraithReaper**

Love those who review! 333333333


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